factor

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. One that actively contributes to an accomplishment, result, or process: "Surprise is the greatest factor in war” ( Tom Clancy). See Synonyms at element.

n. One who acts for someone else; an agent.

n. A person or firm that accepts accounts receivable as security for short-term loans.

n. Mathematics One of two or more quantities that divides a given quantity without a remainder. For example, 2 and 3 are factors of 6; a and b are factors of ab.

n. A quantity by which a stated quantity is multiplied or divided, so as to indicate an increase or decrease in a measurement: The rate increased by a factor of ten.

n. A gene. No longer in technical usage.

n. Physiology A substance that functions in a specific biochemical reaction or bodily process, such as blood coagulation.

transitive v. To determine or indicate explicitly the factors of.

factor in To figure in: We factored sick days and vacations in when we prepared the work schedule.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization

n. An agent or representative.

n. An integral part

n. Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole

n. Influence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence

n. A resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.

v. To find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).

v. To be a product of other objects.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the possession and control of the goods; and in these respects he differs from a broker.

n. A steward or bailiff of an estate.

n. One of the elements or quantities which, when multiplied together, form a product.

n. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result; a constituent; a contributory cause.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

In mathematics, to resolve into factors: as, x—y is factored into (x + y) (x—y).

To act as factor.

n. One who transacts business for another or others; specifically, in com., a commission-merchant; an agent intrusted with the possession of goods for sale.

n. In Scotland, a person appointed by a heritor, landholder, or house-proprietor to manage an estate, to let lands or tenements on lease, to collect rents, etc.

n. An agent or a deputy generally.

n. In American law, in some of the United States, a person charged as a garnishee.

n. In mathematics, one of the two or more numbers, expressions, or quantities which when multiplied together produce a given product: as, 6 and 3 are factors of 18.

n. One of several circumstances, elements, or influences which tend to the production of a given result.

n. See the adjectives.

n. In electricity, in alternating current-waves, a constant which characterizes the shape of the wave: usually defined as the ratio of the effective value of the wave to the effective value of a sine wave of equal mean value.

n. Specifically, in an engine, the ratio of the difference between the maximum and mean turning moments to the mean turning moment. This factor determines the weight of the fly-wheel necessary to make the engine run steadily, the function of the fly-wheel being the storing up of energy at the time of the maximum turning moment, or when it is greater than the mean, and the giving up of that energy when the turning moment is less than the mean.

n. any of the numbers (or symbols) that form a product when multiplied together

v. consider as relevant when making a decision

n. (genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity

v. be a contributing factor

n. a businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a commission

n. one of two or more integers that can be exactly divided into another integer

n. an independent variable in statistics

v. resolve into factors

n. anything that contributes causally to a result

Etymologies

Middle English factour, perpetrator, agent, from Old French facteur, from Latin factor, maker, from facere, to make; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

As history reveals, all systemic failures of society and markets are a result of what I term factor imbalance – i.e., an imbalance of social, political, and marketplace power between the major economic factors, capital and labor.

Another factor is the relative amount of trade protection that our various trading partners give to their industries through tariffs, quotas, and regulations vs. the lesser amount given to American industry.